The Year of Unfinished Learning
Guided Lessons Combine Online Video with Live Coaches and Addresses Reading Skills Gap from
Covid-19 School Closures; Program Developed with Help from the UC Merced Venture Lab
Merced, CA—July 16, 2020—Startup Reading, with support from the UC Merced Venture Lab,
today launched a virtual Summer Reading Program designed for K-5 elementary school children.
The online Summer Reading Program combines self-paced Internet video lessons with live coaching sessions for individual student attention and encouragement. Reading lessons are designed for students entering kindergarten through the fifth grade.
The Summer Reading Program delivers individual lessons to students via a series of 500 recorded videos for each of the eight defined reading skill levels. Each video is approximately 12-15 minutes long and is accompanied by activity pages in a printed workbook, to make a full 30- minute lesson.
After a student has completed one or more lessons, the student has an online meeting with a reading coach who reviews the student’s work, addresses any questions or issues in the student’s grasp of the reading skills, provides encouragement, and reviews the next assignment.
“Parents can have a strategy for their children to keep up with reading and comprehension standards, plus the live coaches are there to check on students’ progress and provide encouragement,” said Vivian Mendoza, Co-founder of Startup Reading. “Students are excited and motivated when they manage their own learning process and have a chance to show off their work.”
To enroll a child, parents or guardians can visit StartupReading.com. Parents with financial hardship may apply for a scholarship from the Startup Reading organization ( email: info@startupreading.com ). UC Merced Venture Lab was instrumental in recognizing the disruption being caused by the early closure of schools and the uncertain date for schools to reopen. The Venture Lab’s charter provides support for the development of startup companies but is also committed to empowering individuals to address issues in their communities.
“As community citizens, we sought to fill this gap by partnering with Startup Reading to offer the community an age-appropriate summer reading program,” said Peter Schuerman, Associate Vice-Chancellor of the Office of Research and Economic Development at UC Merced.
Other parties that were instrumental in the creation of the Summer Reading Program include teachers from McSwain School District, who are actively involved in student placement and oversight, educational consulting firm Walsh, Cassady Walsh, and 4Venir, a non-profit organization providing STEM literacy taught by UC Merced graduate students. The UC Merced students are recruited by the UC Merced Community Engagement Center and the Center for Career and Professional Advancement.
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